Damaris Rodriguez Barcelona, Spring 2012

My name is Damaris Rodriguez. I am a sophomore at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign majoring in psychology. I love to listen to music, some of my favorite artists are The Beatles, Bon Iver, Adele and Nicolas Jaar. I also love to watch movies, whether it be a chick flick like The Notebook or a psychological thriller like The Shining. I like to swim, play soccer, and play the cello. I have traveled to Mexico, Spain, and France. I love traveling and plan to do a lot more of it while in Europe. I enjoy art, architecture, and nature, so I am looking forward to see all of the amazing sites. I am a native Spanish speaker, but I am looking forward to learning some Catalan. After only spending a few days in Barcelona as a 7th grader, I am excited to return and experience it in a new light.

Damaris's Posts

When I think about what was going on in my life 4 months ago, I cannot believe it. I was in a new country basically alone and in a completely new environment. I miss Barcelona a lot and my new friends, but it is nice to be home.

One of the last experiences I had in Barcelona was la Diada de San Jordi or St. George’s Day. It is a Catalan tradition where the men receive books and the women flowers. It was a really lovely experience and everyone seems to really enjoy the holiday.

Well, time sure does fly when you’re having fun, and by fly I mean super sonic speed. These 4 months have been some of the most amazing months of my life. I’ve had such a great time and I am going to miss Barcelona and the people that I have encountered here so much.

The days have been getting warmer and my motivation to go out and explore more of this great city has increased exponentially. I have already done some exploring around where I live, the IES building, and the touristy places, but I wanted to become acquainted with more of it.

I cannot believe that just last week I was exploring the magical city of Venice. I was extremely excited for this trip because I had never been to Italy and I had heard amazing things about Venice in particular. It is such a lovely place and it is very different from anywhere that I had been to.

On Sunday my roommate, a friend, and I went to visit Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona. We took an hour train ride and once there we took a cable car to the top of the mountain. There we had beautiful sights of the mountains and the town below.

By the time this is up I will have been in Barcelona for more than a month and I still cannot be shocked by this. I have gotten so used to living here, but sometimes I think “Woah! I’m in Barcelona right now.” It is still so unreal.

This semester the IES program took all of us on a mandatory (but fun!) trip to Valencia. It was a good trip because we had some planned activities, but we also had a lot of free time to do our own exploring of the city.

We went to many places: Plaça de Catalunya, Passeig de Gràcia, La Sagrada Família, El Parc Güell, Estadi Olímpic, and Camp Nou (FC Barcelona’s stadium). I learned a lot about Barcelona on this tour and saw some great sights.

Well, here I am writing this post with less than a week in the U.S. of A. Wow. Let me rephrase that, WOW!! I leave for Barcelona this coming Monday, and I can barely handle both my excitement and my nerves.

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